Few would have predicted that it would be Costa Rica, representing a country of only 4.8m people and with a modest football history, that would emerge from a group of three former world champions.

But Uruguay, Italy and England – the latter to a lesser extent as they were already out when they faced Los Ticos – seem to have underestimated the team and their colourful coach who is something of a Latin American José Mourinho. On Sunday they face Greece with a World Cup quarter-final place at stake.

Jorge Luis Pinto makes no secret of how much it means to him to have taken his team to Brazil. In the emotional moments just after securing qualification against Jamaica, Pinto fought back tears as he said: “I’ve fought my whole life to get to a World Cup, and now I’ve achieved it. It’s been my life’s struggle. I’ve been an honest, hard-working man …” He broke off, his voice cracking.

He has been known to call phone-in programmes to harangue his critics and lambasted the Mexican press as “clowns disguised as journalists” before their qualification match in the Azteca. He received a 10-match touchline ban while coaching in Colombia and a six-match suspension in Venezuela, both for vehement arguments with officials.

Crucially, though, he won titles in both countries, with Cúcuta and Táchira, as well as during coaching spells in Peru (Alianza Lima) and Costa Rica (Alajuelense). However, an earlier period in charge of Los Ticos in 2004-05 and his term as coach of Colombia before the South Africa World Cup both ended in disappointment.

Born in San Gil, some 300km north of Bogotá, Pinto is one of several Colombians coaching at this year’s World Cup (Colombia themselves are coached by an Argentinian, José Pékerman). Like Mourinho, he has never played top-level football. Instead, he got into coaching by an academic route, studying first in Colombia, then Brazil and later in Germany. “I’ve been around the world of football; from South America to Europe I have visited and watched the great coaches at work,” he has said.

He is not shy about outlining his coaching philosophy on his personal website jorgeluispinto.com. “I like my teams to play football that puts pressure on the opposition, with the ball on the deck, aggressive, balanced in all senses of the word, tactically ordered and good on the ball.

“My principle of work is based on training and methodology: to have the right training methodology. In that I share the view of Mourinho, who says that football is a methodology of training, concept, periodisation and, logically, of strategy. Football also evolves, just as the world, cars, computers do, so you have to keep evolving and immersing yourself in those changes.”

It was telling that in April, when thieves broke into his parked car and stole various personal belongings, not only did he lose a contacts book with 20 years’ worth of professional associates, but also an iPad containing a draft of the football book he is working on. A certain professorial air from his academic background also shines through in the video tutorials posted on his website illustrating tactical ideas with videos from top-level matches, for example Corinthians’ closing-down of Chelsea in the 2012 World Club Cup final.

Despite his attention to detail, he does not seek to control all aspects of his players’ lives. Asked about his attitude to sex while away with the national team, he told the Costa Rican newspaper Al Día: “It’s always a good thing, although of course regulated and well-controlled. It seems to me that this psychological relaxation is human, it’s natural and I love it. It reduces tension.”

Costa Rica had the best defensive record in the final “hexagonal” phase of Concacaf qualifying. They finished second to the USA but that could have been different if their appeal about the conditions of their controversial 1-0 defeat in Denver had been upheld. The match in March last year took place in a blizzard, the pitch was covered in several inches of snow, and snowploughs and shovels were needed to clear the lines. Costa Rica won the return 3-1 in September.

Since qualification their record in friendlies has been less than impressive. A 2-1 victory over Paraguay was preceded by defeats to Australia, Chile and South Korea, although only the fancied Chileans managed to put more than one goal past them.

Their main creator is Bryan Ruiz, familiar from Fulham, while ahead of him is the young Arsenal loanee Joel Campbell, whom Pinto compares to Hernán Medford, the star of the 1990 team.

Pinto knows, though, that it is how Costa Rica perform at the other end that will be key. “I would say that if Costa Rica have a good point it’s our defensive system, which isn’t just the four or five defenders,” he said. “Our defence is balanced, tough and very efficient.”

As Uruguay and Italy know to their cost, LosTicos’ attack is not too shabby either. Now, it’s Greece’s turn.